Cryotherapy: Would you freeze yourself fit?

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Photos:Deep freeze fitness

Deep freeze fitness – Could you survive temperatures colder than Antarctica ... wearing only your underwear ... in the pursuit of fitness?

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Photos:Deep freeze fitness

Three-time major winner Padraig Harrington is not afraid of the cold. The Irish golfer uses cryotherapy treatment as a regular part of his training and fitness regime.

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Deep freeze fitness – Athletes who use cryotherapy must be prepared for a big chill. There are typically two chambers in a cryotherapy unit. The first a milder -60 degrees Celsius (-79 Fahrenheit) and the main chamber chilled to -130 (-200 ˚F).

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Deep freeze fitness – Protective clothing to keep the chill away from the delicate parts of the body is a must for these female cryotherapy participants at the pioneering Olympic Sports Center in Spala, near the Polish capital of Warsaw.

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Deep freeze fitness – West Ham United is one of several English Premier League soccer teams to use the mobile cryotherapy unit, which has been on the road since 2013. Here players Andy Carroll, Kevin Nolan and Joey O'Brien prepare to enter its chilly interior.

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Deep freeze fitness – Chilled out New Yorkers can try out KryoLife's "cryosauna" for $90 a session, as the big freeze therapy comes to the high streets.

(CNN)Would you dare to freeze yourself fit by stepping into a chilling chamber colder than Antarctica?

Golfers are used to frosty fairways, stormy tees and soggy greens but Padraig Harrington is taking the plunge with a real deep freeze.

Ireland's three-time major winner is following in the chilling footsteps of actor Daniel Craig and super-fit soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo by exposing himself to cryotherapy in preparation for the 2015 season.

"I've used whole body cryotherapy for several years," Harrington commented to CNN.

"Guided by research from Setanta College, it's played a key part in my recovery, especially between competitive periods."

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Cryotherapy translates as cold cure -- but for some the intense chill goes beyond words.

"The cold floods your brain and you can't process much more than putting one foot in front of another," Mike Moynihan, a columnist for the Irish Examiner, recalls of his experience in the chiller.

"Your body is in revolt and won't allow you to relax. It's so different, to be that cold, that I had a real notion of what people mean when they refer to a hostile environment -- but that only came afterwards, when I was outside."

Chill with a thrill

For others, cryotherapy is an ecstatic chill with a thrill.

"I call it 'legal doping,' says Eduardo Bohorquez, who runs New York's only cryotherapy center. "When you come out you feel so euphoric."

Those brave enough to enter the cryotherapy chamber expose themselves to tingling temperatures of -130 degrees Celsius or -200 Fahrenheit.

Hennessy imported cryotherapy to Ireland and watched the freeze become a fashion. "It's now taken off big time in Wales, England and France and Germany," he adds. "The U.S. had no treatment centers in 2006 but now there are a couple of hundred."

But what are the effects of the big chill?

Cryotherapy has two main benefits for maxed out sporting stars -- helping speed up the body's recovery after intense training and promoting a deeper sleep.

"Part of our investigations included taking serum and blood tests to monitor enzymes related to muscle damage," explains Hennessy, who ran a research program into cryotherapy.

"What we saw is that they returned to normal when players took part in cryotherapy compared to when they didn't. It improved the inflammatory response, which led to a better recovery.

"We've also seen heart rate variability -- which is a marker of stress -- returned to the baseline quicker if the athlete is exposed to cryotherapy.

"We noticed that sleep quality is also improved straight away by an exposure to cryotherapy.

"Individual athletes would report, 'I just had a good, deep sleep and I feel very good.' It's also possible to get a quality of sleep number by attaching a monitor to the wrist."

In a four-year study of 156 rugby players, 95% said cryotherapy had a positive effect on their recovery after training.

"Many of those that take it will tell you afterwards that they feel elated, they feel a rush of energy and a high as happy hormones are released," adds Hennessey.

Mobile freezer

Traditional cryotherapy chambers, with three rooms of gradually dropping temperatures, are an expensive and unwieldy piece kit -- not the sort of thing you can pack on the team bus.

But cryotherapy has now gone mobile which means sports stars can order a deep freeze almost as easily as a hot takeaway.

"Having the unit on the road and available on a rental basis is opening cryotherapy up to an awful lot more people," Ian Bridge, managing director of cryotherapy consultants Sappari, tells CNN.

In 2013, Bridge conceived the first mobile full body cryotherapy unit in the UK, which is owned and operated by medical and industrial gases specialist BOC.

His clients include Premier League teams Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United as well as rugby union clubs such as Bath and Northampton.

"You can get a whole squad through the mobile unit in a day," Bridge explains "The British Lions rugby players used it before their tour of Australia last year and did three treatments a day.

"They were dragging the guys out of bed before breakfast sticking them through cryo, they'd do some gym work in the morning, then go in for another session before lunch, do some work on the pitch and then another treatment at the end of the day.

"The mobile unit is predominantly used to stimulate a quicker recovery after training or games."

It costs up to $1,500 to hire the six-meter long unit for a day in the deep freeze.

"We find our bookings come in around the Champions League fixtures," says Bridge. "It was in heavy use over the Christmas period because there was such a heavy football program."

Cryotherapy is not only the domain of fatigued footballers, its frosty fingers are also spreading to the high street.

Legal doping

The KryoLife center offers New Yorkers either a blast in its so-called "cryosauna" or a local treatment --increasingly used as part of a beauty regime to firm up skin -- where vaporized liquid nitrogen is blown over a specific part of the body.

"It is a growing industry," chairman Bohorquez, who brought cryotherapy to New York after receiving revelatory treatment in Poland on his injured right knee, tells CNN.

"There are a lot of famous people in the entertainment industry -- like actors Kevin Bacon and Ben Stiller -- and from the athletic world who use our center, so that has increased cryotherapy's popularity.

"Professional sports teams like the New York Knicks have a couple of machines which has also helped awareness."

If the price continues to drop, along with the temperatures, is there a chance that cryotherapy will become as normal as having a sports massage or a protein shake?

"Yes, I truly believe so," says Bohorquez. "Particularly the local treatment which is cheaper and less intimidating.

"I call cryotherapy legal doping because it boosts your energy levels and it makes your more alert. It increases your neuro-muscular response, so you react a little faster, and your immune system is activated.

"It boosts metabolism, which is also useful for weight loss, but it also stimulates your endocrine system so it relaxes you.

"I pretty much do it every day now," says Bohorquez cheerily. "You should try it."